The Zone of Genius. "Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see". - Arthur Schopenhauer What is genius? It's is an adjective reserved for some of the most revolutionary, influential, and innovative people in history: Albert Einstein, Leonardo DaVinci, Galileo, Marie Curie, Nikola Tesla, and Mozart are a few names that come to mind. Most accounts attribute greater intelligence, an unyielding belief in vision, and even a dose of madness to what sets a genius apart.
But perhaps "genius" isn't too far off and it can exist in all of us, in the things we love doing most? According to Gay Hendricks' book, The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear, there is a zone of genius and we are all capable of achieving it. The Zone of Incompetence: Naturally, we can't do everything and the things we do not do well fall into this category. The Power Curve. "...things have a momentum, and at a certain point you can't really tell whether you have created the momentum or it's creating you. " -Annie Lennox Thank you Mark Dennen for contributing to Friday Reflections last week and referencing The Power Curve.
And thank you to Micro CEO, a reader, who posted the following in response to Mark’s comment about The Power Curve, attaching a reference link which I found very enlightening and worth sharing: “One of life's under-regarded principles is called being Behind the Power Curve (or "on the back side of the power curve"). The analogy comes from aviation, and is illustrated in this graph, which all would do well to understand:….More in the link that follows…… How do you see the Power Curve applied to your work and in your life?
Behind the Power Curve. [<< | Prev | Index | Next | >>] Behind the Power CurveOne of life's under-regarded principles is called being Behind the Power Curve (or "on the back side of the power curve"). The analogy comes from aviation, and is illustrated in this graph, which all would do well to understand: Spelled out, there comes a point when your plane is slowing down that in order to maintain altitude you need to start adding power again. Pretty soon you've got the throttle on full, engine working as hard as it can, fuel burning up at maximum rate, and yet you are flying at your slowest possible speed! And in fact at that point you are barely hanging in the air and if you cut the power back just a little bit you come tumbling out of the sky. Brooks Was Here. When we are no longer able to change a situation - we are challenged to change ourselves.
-Viktor E. Frankl Brooks is a character in the fantastic film, "The Shawshank Redemption. " He went into prison when he was young and left 49 years later when he was an old man who had known nothing more than a life behind bars. Upon his release, Brooks finds the world has changed. People move faster. It becomes too much for Brooks and eventually he considers committing another crime to send him back to what he knows best - the federal penitentary. Above the spot where he hangs himself, Brooks carves, "Brooks was here. " Often we run, hide, and self destruct in the face of change. It makes me think of the things in our lives that are prisons and the reasons we stay in them. We must keep moving. The Ultimate Fighter. "If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful at all.
" - Michelangelo STORY LINE by Rajiv Shah A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of coaching a prominent UFC fighter for a movie audition. This fighter had very limited acting training and had only auditioned a few times before. I wasn't sure what to expect, considering his dominance as a two-time world champion fighter and relative inexperience as an actor. As we began to work, we would rehearse a scene and I would ask him how he felt about his performance. He took on the challenge as any athlete would. Once his audition arrived, those emotions he was looking for were there.
In the end, the same work ethic that made him a UFC champion paid off for him as an actor as well, and he got the part. When I look back on this experience I come away with five important things: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Warren Buffett's Magnificent Seven. "Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken. " - Warren Buffett Warren Buffett, one of the most successful investors in the world, donated a majority of his wealth, US $30 billion+, to the Bill Gates Charitable foundation. Here are seven magnificent teachings/quotes from Warren Buffet: 1.
It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. And some investment advice from One of The Greatest Investors… "I Sent You to Manila to Solve My Problems, Not Report More..." “Just because you reported nine problems and the guy before you seven does not mean you are making progress.” -Jim Boyd, One of the bosses from my early-days in industry. STORYLINE “ I sent you to Manila to solve problems not come back and report more” -Mr. Dowd The year was 1980. Listening to the presentation by the leader of the team, it seemed that there were many big problems at the subcontractor site, and there was no end on the horizon.
As the leader was about to end, Mr. One person from the team said, “But Mr. To that Mr. The story above and many more practical lessons that I learnt after that day from Mr. A Real Network. The currency of real networking is not greed but generosity. - Keith Ferrazzi STORY LINE by Rajiv Shah This week I've spent the majority of my time at a film festival here in LA where one of the films I worked on is screening throughout the week. Film Festivals can be a mad crush to get your film seen, raise capital for your next project, and make as many connections as you possibly can. It's hard work but is a whole lot of fun too. When I first started going to these festivals I was overwhelmed, intimidated, and avoided all the wonderful events that festivals provide to filmmakers. Why? Fast forward 4 years from that first festival and I'm swapping business cards, making connections, attending all the parties (and there is one every night) and most importantly, I'm enjoying myself.
In the past four years I've had tremendous mentors who I've learned from, most of the time just by observing how they act in the same environments. Be yourself. I'm curious as to what has helped you? Before the Show. The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses - behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights. -Muhammad Ali REFLECTION by Rajiv Shah I read that after Mother Teresa's death, her diaries were found to contain doubts about her religion, and her faith in God. There was a fear that if Mother Teresa, a saint ordained by the catholic church, had doubts about God and the meaning in her service, it would lead to questions about her sainthood. To me, those letters confirmed that she was even more of a saint than I orginally thought. My reasoning, and this is only my opinon, is that her having doubts that she was human like the rest of us but chose to continue serving in spite of her doubts. For whatever reason we like our heroes clean and without human failings.
It's human to question and to feel like we may not be able to accomplish a feat. The Most Precious Resource. Play For the Name On the Front, Not the Name On the Back. A good boss makes his men realize they have more ability than they think they have, so that they consistently do better work than they thought they could.” – Charles Erwin Wilson STORY LINE by Rajiv Shah Yesterday, I attended the victory parade for the San Francisco Giants, a baseball team that won its second world championship in the last three years. It is tough to win one championship let alone two in the past three years. Even more remarkable is the way they won. I love using sports examples in Friday Reflections as I feel there are lessons from them that we can apply to our own lives.
And what are those life lessons? 25 Guys. 1 Common Goal. Win Today. This core value resonates with everyone that puts on a San Francisco Giants uniform and is reflected in the way they play the game: Never give up. This culture, set forth by Giants management, worked its way into how the players approached the game as a team. "Get in here, everyone get in here. Think Like Einstein. “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” -Albert Einstein The following article is an extract from the book How to Think like Einstein by Scott Thorpe (example of Reframe technique taught in OBT class): The problem Einstein solved that gave us E=mc2 was an old one.
A generation of scientists had been trying to understand why light always seems to be going at the same speed relative to the observer. Their problem went something like “How can nature appear to act that way when we know that it can’t?” They failed because they were looking for an answer that did not exist. Einstein simply imagined that time could run faster for one object than for another. He asked himself “What would nature be like if it did act the way we observe it to act?” Einstein succeeded because he was working on a problem that enabled solution. We leave this week's reflection with Alber Einstein himself: Always fight your fight. In all my years of coaching, I have never been successful using somebody else’s plays. - Vince Lombardi STORYLINE: Muhammad is not talking, The fight that Ali lost. Muhammad Ali was set for his first fight against Leon Spinks, an unknown boxer who had only six major fights in his career.
Leading up to the fight there were a few things Ali did not do that were part of his normal routines before fights. He did not prepare as hard but also noticeably was his silence before. In all fights before he was very vocal about opponents, making statements, poetries how he is going to humiliate the opponent. From what I had heard, he was advice to be modest before Spinks fight and he decided to stay complete silent when reporters would approach him for questions, refused interviews . And you know what happened?
One cannot tell what exactly was going through Muhammad Ali's mind leading up to the fight.